


Acquired taste

by hikachu



Category: Umineko no Naku Koro ni | When the Seagulls Cry
Genre: F/M, Pre-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-05-21
Updated: 2011-05-21
Packaged: 2018-03-12 03:17:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 698
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3341558
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hikachu/pseuds/hikachu
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Tea has become a daily ritual. She drinks it together with Kinzo in the afternoon as they chat and laugh; she drinks it on her own to remember the man she loves.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Acquired taste

"Who was that man you were talking with, earlier?"

Bice lifts her head and looks at him with eyes slightly widened. The fact is trivial in her mind, and it's only after several moments that she can associate the question with the short, smiling man from that morning.

"Oh," she blinks. "He brought the roses you wanted to plant in the garden. I was taking a stroll outside, so I thought I'd thank him." Her expression is completely open. Beatrice isn't naïve, but there is something childish about her honesty. It's reassuring, to Kinzo.

"I see."

She waits for him to say something else, to tell her a story from his past or work or ask for advice, and in the meanwhile she sips her tea and ponders distractedly on its flavor. It is, without a doubt, blander than coffee, and while she did drink tea back home, sometimes, she had never been too fond of it. Bice even remembers crying and protesting when, still a kid, she ate enough candy to make herself sick, and her mother and the maids wouldn't let her have anything else but tea for breakfast.

Now, however, tea has become a daily ritual. She drinks it together with Kinzo in the afternoon as they chat and laugh; she drinks it on her own to remember the man she loves when he is—

_with his family_

—away. She drinks it on her own to remember the time spent together and his voice and gestures as he explained about all the different kinds of tea and roses.

It's an acquired taste, like many other things about life in Odawara which, while still somewhat foreign, come naturally to her by now. Like the hello and thank you she offered that man this morning: Bice wonders if she'll ever actually learn the language, but it's difficult when she seldom leaves the villa and the servants are so formal they never talk to her unless they  _have_  to.

From time to time, Kinzo likes to try and teach her some Japanese, but Bice sees his smile, both amused and warm, and knows that he doesn't really expect her to learn, that he just enjoys being with her and taking her hand into his as he helps her trace awkward kana.

"Kinzo?" she calls him after a while. "What's wrong? You're unusually quiet today."

Beatrice waits for a smile that doesn't come.

"Bice, you…" he sounds tired at first, then she realizes it's worry. "You should be more careful," he finally says.

"… Careful?"

Suddenly, it's as if she's travelled back in the past, when her father would reproach her for spending too much time with this or that boy. What will people think, he'd ask, sounding exasperated but too fond of his daughter to be truly angry.

Kinzo, instead, doesn't look as lenient, and there's something in his eyes that she can't read. But it lasts only for a moment, and he never gets angry at her. They never fight. If they bicker from time to time, it's always playful. So, Bice decides, this can't be important.

It's useless, after all, to worry over things that have no real meaning: she's happy here, in this cage that really doesn't feel like a cage anymore when Kinzo is here, and she wants this happiness that she can only taste in small doses to last for as long as possible. This is the essence of her life now; another acquired taste she couldn't live without.

Bice loves him and the way he kisses her: passionate but careful, almost innocent. She sets down her cup and leans in. It takes Kinzo a moment to realize what is happening, and then he's kissing her back, both hands lovingly stroking her cheeks.

Beatrice is happy and thinks that maybe, later she will tease him about being jealous. Then, tomorrow, when she wakes up to an empty bed because he's gone again, she will do her best to smile as she greets the new day, and will drink tea to remember today's happiness.

It never hits her that by the end of the year there are very few men still working in the mansion.


End file.
